1. "__ Buddies": '80s sitcom: BOSOM. Alliteration in the title of this sitcom. I remember that Tom Hanks was a co-star and that I didn't watch it. Saw a couple of episodes much later in syndication after he became famous.

16. Toondom's Olive: OYL. Olive Oyl is to Popeye as Nell Fenwick is to Dudley Do-Right.

19. "XING" one: PED.

20. Postcard view of a city: SKYLINE. My first apartment in Houston was a 2BR townhouse at 6419 Skyline Drive. That's near Hillcroft and Richmond for you Houstonians. The view from my bedroom window was the school across the street.

21. Hold the deed to: OWN.

22. Sandy slope: DUNE.

23. Salacious: LEWD.

26. Sharp turns: ZIGS.

29. Many, many years: EON.

31. Deli subs: HEROS. No e in the plural of the deli hero, but there is an e for a group of courageous and brave heroes.

32. Game with Wild Draw Four cards: UNO. If I recall correctly, you had to declare "Uno" when you got down to one card left in your hand.

33. Of an arm bone: ULNAR. Mark McClain threw trapezium at us in a clue in his "Alphabetic Order" puzzle Sunday. Here are some other anatomical terms of the:

35. Response to bad service: NO TIP. I can't recall ever having such bad service in a restaurant that I didn't leave a tip. Smaller tip, yes. Definitely have encountered waitstaff that probably should have chosen another profession.

42. Wombs: UTERI.

43. Mar. parade honoree: ST. PAT. Saint Patrick. Pádraig in Irish. Mark McClain had the clue, "Two-time British Open champ Harrington" for Pádraig in Sunday's puzzle that C.C. reviewed.

44. Genetic messenger: RNA. Ribonucleic acid.

45. Starr knighted in 2018: RINGO. Not to be a nitpicker, but he was knighted as Sir Richard Starkey.

48. Nine-digit ID: SSN. Social Security Number. Canadian Eh taught (some of) us that our neighbors to the north get a Social Insurance Number, but that it is not intended to be, nor is it supposed to be used, as an all purpose identification number.

49. Antiprohibitionists: WETS. vs Drys. Wets is much easier to spell.

53. "In that case ... ": IF SO.

55. Discovery cries: AHAs.

56. Blossom buzzer: BEE.

57. What discreet acts are done on, with "the": DOWN LOW. Some discreet acts done on the down low are lowdown.

61. Big Apple paper, for short: NYT. New York Times.

64. Sticky stuff: GOO.

65. Joe of "Casino": PESCI.

66. "__ to suggestions": I'M OPEN.

67. California's Big __: SUR.

68. Second-string squad: B TEAM.

69. Fork points: TINES.

Down:

1. Camp bed: BUNK.

2. Wild party: ORGY.

3. Wizards' castings: SPELLS.

4. Skateboard leap: OLLIE. I like How-To videos, but I don't think I'll be trying this anytime soon.

5. Have good intentions: MEAN WELL.

6. Smartphone predecessor, for short: PDA. Personal Digital Assistant

7. Greek storyteller: AESOP.

8. God, in Judaism: YAHWEH. First time I've encountered this word.

9. Jacque's "thirty": TRENTE. Starbucks offers a size called Trenta. Italian for thirty. It's 31 oz. Gulp ! I went to PronounceNames.com and listened to both trente and trenta. So close in spelling...

10. Cries of worry: OYs.

11. Temporary retail space: POP UP STORE. Apple opened a few pop up stores in 2015 to create excitement and get their new watches in front of consumers in London, Paris and Tokyo.

Flash forward to NYC in 2018. Rumors abounded and expectations rose in New York City about a possible new product launch... possibly a new iPhone... but it wasn't to be. This place was selling a new variety of actual apples.

28. Ahnold's political nickname: GOVERNATOR. A blend of governor and Terminator for the 38th Governor of California and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

30. Captures: NABS.

33. Employing: USING.

34. Decays: ROTS.

36. "Money __ everything": ISN'T.

37. School orgs.: PTAs. Parent Teacher Associations

39. Great Lakes natives: ERIES.

40. Silver lining: UPSIDE.

41. Fled: RAN FOR IT.

46. Thanksgiving gravy ingredient: GIBLET.

47. Ultimatum words: OR ELSE. In July 1977, Arnold was in a relationship with Beverly Hills hairdresser Sue Moray when he met Maria Shriver. "He went on to have a relationship with both Moray and Shriver until August 1978, when Moray (who knew of his relationship with Shriver) issued an ultimatum." - Wikipedia

49. Chinese dumpling: WONTON.

50. __ up on: unites against: GANGS.

51. "What a kidder!": OH YOU.

52. High-end German camera: LEICA. I'd say high-end. Just read that their M10 retails for greater than $6K.

54. Hindu guru: SWAMI.

58. Rapper __ Fiasco: LUPE. Stage name for Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, a 36 year old rapper, entrepreneur and record producer from Chicago - Wikipedia.

59. Mining hauls: ORES.

60. Benign cyst: WEN. I only knew of Wen tools from the Home Depot and Wen personal care products, but here it is "... a common cyst that forms from a hair follicle. They are most often found on the scalp." Wikipedia - Trichilemmal cyst.

62. BOLO kin: APB. Be on (the) lookout - All Points Bulletin

63. Apple CEO Cook: TIM. Tim Cook couldn't do anything about the apple pop up store opening in NYC earlier this year. Not that he needed to. Apple Inc was reaching the One Trillion Dollar valuation. Wow ! Raise the roof Tim !

FIWrong. eLDEN and uIGS. I was torn between elden and olden, but PHE sounded more VietNameseous than PHO. I started with uIeS, a cross changed e to G, but I neglected to check the u to Z.

I had to have paramedics help me after another fall last night. That's 4 times over the past 2 weeks! I think I'm going to be really housebound if I can't even walk as far as my car! My only injury was a skinned knee, so no need for commiseration over the fall physically, but psychologically I'm shook up, not by the fall, but the implications for my future!

We may enjoy ALLITERATIVE LITERATUREBut dast we trifle with established nomenclature?But what the heck,The rules are a wreck,So we'll use a portmanteau of ALLITERATURE!

We PAY TO get food, we pay for service,We pay for ambiance that won't unnerve us.We gift a lagniappeFor the diligent chap,But we leave NO TIP for waiters who don't serve us!

OH, YOU all know it's LEWD to stare at a BOSOMUnless she's a pro, advertising "I'M OPEN"!Should she wrinkle her noseAt your junk when it shows,It's as bad as if her PETER PAN was spoken!

Boomer here. Confidential to TTP. I am right handed and of course the ten pin and the 6-10 spare have always given me fits. Last fall I had the pro shop guy drill a 14 pound plastic ball for spares with about an inch shorter span between the thumb and fingers. In the old days I think it was called a semi fingertip. On a heavy oil condition I will usually play the spare between the second and third arrow however when the outside is dryer, I will move left and allow for some hook, even with the plastic ball. Before you spend the money, normally any bowling center will have a 14 pound house ball with conventional drilling that you can try it out. Good Luck !!

OwenKL you make me smile . Feeling your oats today? I love it when a plan comes together. Even though I FIWrong , I quite enjoyed your puzzle Joe Deeny and the write up TTP. I don’t skate board so I was not familiar with OLLIEAnd I mispelt BOSUM and left it with ULLIE. Another spelling mstake at PESKI and LEIKA.Not too shabby.— one of my grandson’s exprssion. Take care

Joe dealt out only two problems for me this morning: Jehova/YAHWEH (I can't keep my mythologies straight) and Saris/SWAMI (I can't read, apparently. I thought "guru" was "garb"). But, that's what Wite-Out is for. Was familiar with WEN -- no idea why. I read the reveal, looked for something hidden in the theme answers, didn't find anything. Natch. Thanx, Joe and TTP. (We used to live near Hillcroft, about a mile south of the area you mentioned.)

Thought this one was a bit gnarly but I mucked through it OK. Only one lookup, WEN. Got PHO and LUPE from perps. Loved the grand finale with ALLITERATURE. Grid is 16 X 15.TINE - Our silage fork had 8 tines. German Zinke, but L. German Tinn.DUNE - Dune includes not only the slope but the mound of sand under it.TRENTE - High school French.

FLN - Anon -T - - I was trying to stress that a large load center located say, several hundred miles from generation, may be better served by a DC line to deliver power to the area. Of course, it would have to be converted to AC for delivery in the load area.

Few, if any, stumbles this morning. This was a pretty straightforward Tuesday with only one unknown, the rapper, Lupe and no w/os. I've only seen Deary spelled Dearie, but they both work. After filling in Angela and Peter, I thought the theme was going to be literary characters, but the other two theme entries changed that assumption. The reveal was fun and fitting.

Thanks, Joe, for a rewarding solve and thanks, TTP, for the A+ summary. I especially enjoyed the mini-tour of Sedona (Thought of Lucina) and Indiana Dunes Seashore, a place I've never heard of. I don't associate Indiana with dunes and lakes but this country of ours is full of surprises, not to mention its vast, majestic beauty. I also enjoyed the primer on cultural etiquette do's and don't's. (Thanks for the Pho photo and recipe; the Instant Pot purchase is still being researched.)

Completely off topic, but has anyone ever heard of rice flour? I read a recipe that called for both bread flour (which is readily available) and rice flour, which was not in my market. Maybe you'd have to go to a specialty store? Is it an Asian ingredient?

Owen, as Bill G would say (so wisely), Mind how you go. 😉

FLN

Anonymous T, if you learn that dance, you deserve an award, and, your daughter's never-ending gratitude.

I DNFed this Thursday-level thumper, looking up ANGELAS ASHES and LUPE Fiasco. I confused McCourt with McCord and was trying to noodle up a golf memoir. I plead guilty to ignorance and apathy of rap - I don't know and I don't care. Three consecutive foreign words - YAHWEH, TRENTE and OYS - Come on man, it's Tuesday! On the UPSIDE, I didn't erase anything!

OKL, your narrative is very scary. Maybe you should check out housing that is geared for aging folks. My sister bought a condo in a development designed to incorporate assisted living and/or memory care should those needs arise. She's now almost 80 and doesn't need either, but I think it was and remains a good plan. In any case, I hope you create a safe environment for yourself.

A dreary November Morn here. I think November and February have the least sun. Or so it seems.

As I said, I have my knitting mojo once more, but perhaps at the expense of my ability to solve some recent puzzles. I know I am retired and often lose track of time, but I just completed two puzzles this morning. I thought they were Monday and Tuesday. Alas, I was stumped here and there. I agree with Lemonade at 4:49. I feel a ramp up lately on Monday and Tuesday.

Nonetheless, thanks for the fine puzzles, Frank and Joe. Of course, I enjoyed the tours by Boomer and TTP. Merci.

For AnonT: Saturday for one brief moment (away from the talking heads) the camera at the Illinois game on Dad's day showed the dads and cheerleaders/drill teams (?) rehearsing for a half time show. I would love to have seen that. Great memory for the kids and their dads.

OKL- Take care. I'm always worried about staying "square" with carefully plotted side movements and turns. My dad used to tell me all the time to look up. Now I'm always looking down to make sure my feet are planted safely. Ah, these Golden Years!

Boomer, thanks ! Instead of cupping my wrist like in a normal delivery, I've always held the ball down and shot cross-lane at the 10 and 6-10. I do that to take the hook out, but it obviously doesn't always work. And when the lanes get dry, it's tougher yet. It makes better sense to get a ball that doesn't grip as much. BTW, both my Hammer and Brunswick are fingertips, but I have a spot for another ball in my carrier, so there's room. Thanks coach !

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Joe and TTP.This CW filled in quickly for me, moving across and down in ZIGS and Zags.I wondered how all those literature genres were going to be related. Smiled at the reveal.

Payee moved to PAY TO (clue did say wordS). Several misspellings were corrected by perps including Yahwaw to YAHWEH, Wanton to WONTON (how LEWD!), Aahs to AHAS.

Glad to add Canadian content with SIN info, TTP. Did any of you smile like me when you saw LABOURS with a U? And did any of you smile at the Thanksgiving gravy ingredient and wonder if it was a Canadian or American Thanksgiving? (I don't like GIBLETs.)

On the DOWN LOW is not an expression that I use or have heard lately. We have had WEN here before. Grandmother had them on her head.

I agree with you MadameD about November being the dreariest month. Somehow February doesn't seem quite so bad because spring is closer then.Owen, take care! Enjoy the day.

Wave length? Wheelhouse? I flew through this one but I’m not sure why. Thanks, Joe. I didn’t much like IN OT but it fit and made sense. OLLIE and WEN were unknowns but i didn’t notice that crosses filled them in.

C Eh! I noticed a North of the Border feel for this one. LABOUR of course, but I wondered about that THANKSGIVING gravy, too. I don’t like GIBLETS either.

I realized early on that these were names of literary writings which are alliterative, but I had to wait for the exact reveal, alliterature, a fanciful made up word, kinda punny.-I have enjoyed Angela's Ashes and 'Tis by McCourt. My younger sister liked these, too. Most of my friends like only "happy talk" stories. I am interested in how many cultures lived in the OLDEN days and in the immigrant experience. The nitty-gritty does not turn me off.-Anonymous T. I have to hand it to you. No greater love has a father than this. I found the video intimidating. Perhaps there was more real teaching after that.-Although I have never skateboarded I knew OLLIE. I have seen skateboarding competitions on TV. Skateboarding will become an Olympic sport in Tokyo in 2020.-Owen, you are in my thoughts. Do you have a lot of stairs to get outdoors? My SIL had only a few steps. My brother put a small ramp over them so she could use a mobility scooter or a wheelchair to get out of the house. Jinx's suggestion seems worth exploring.-CSO to our Tom's again. -If a waitress has a one time bad day I usually leave a normal tip. If the service was absolutely terrible due to the waitress or the same waitress fails time after time I leave a smaller tip.OY is a common expression around there. Yahweh is familiar to religious Christians who find it in the Old Testament and Jews who find it in their Bible. It is devilishly hard to spell.Brighter days are coming. The sun will come out tomorrow, or so the weather girl says.

Desper-otto, was that Sharpstown ? Do you remember that big flea market in the area ? I've been trying to remember exactly where it was, but it was nearby.

Madame Defarge, it is kind of dreary outside today, isn't it ? Off to the polling place in a little bit. Won't see Abejo though, he works at another nearby one.

Irish Miss, I mentioned Instant Pot to DW, and she said we should look into it. Also, those Indiana Dunes are a big draw. The tallest of the dunes is Mt Tom. I read that there's another Mt Tom in Massachusetts. And, I also liked that Sedona video; I watched it twice. I imagine that Lucina has been there.

CanadianEh @ 8:31 ~ Yes, I did smile at Labour because I left out the U at first and then saw I was a letter short. I immediately thought of you and how many times you have to adjust to the Americanized spellings.

YR @ 9:06 ~ I, too, loved "Angela's Ashes" and " 'Tis", despite the "nitty-gritty." Frank McCourt was a wonderful story teller and he had many personal stories of adversity to tell.

It's very dreary here, as well, and I think we're in for some heavy rain a little later.

Musings-The cat woke me at 3:30 am and the subline at 5:30 am and so here I am teaching JH science where I have 42 years of experience.-Puzzle was fun and parsing the clever reveal/gimmick took some time-My eldest daughter broke three of those bones in her hand last week in a bike accident. She does look forward to 4 weeks off from her high stress State Farm job-I’M OPEN is what all wide receivers keep telling the QB during a game-An Omaha World Herald restaurant reviewer sang the praises of the PHO soup at a new Vietnamese restaurant-Gotta run! Teaching about planets ia a fav of mine!

FLN: -T, that will do for the Trojan Horse takeoff. YAHWEH new? Originally the tetragrammaton:YHWH. From which Jehovah28D, another portmanteauOwen, still sorry about the fall but will adding a + to #3 help?

Malachy McCourt had a bar on the Eastside in the sixties. He had long flowing hair, a big smile and held court outside where the line stood.

Definitely not in my wheelhouse with the ALLITERATURE theme. Everybody knows PETER PAN. Gillian Flynn was an unknowns but I had to accompany DW to see two of the movies. ANGELA'S ASHES, which gets a nomination of one of the worst movies that I ever had to endure, and GONE GIRL. If I were her husband, I would have killed that bitch for trying to frame me.

LOVE'S LABOURS LOST- all perps as I can say that I've never heard of it or LUPE or TRENTE.

I wouldn't call SEDONA a resort but a place that goes out its way to attract weird people, just like that town in New Mexico- Roswell. Pink Jeep Tours, Poco Diablo Hotel, and 'crystal vortex', crystal diodes, and the red rocks that look like mountains but aren't. Going south From Flagstaff on the Colorado Plateau to Sedona, water eroded the rocks just the same as the Grand Canyon, which is north of Flagstaff. Just didn't erode as much.

The DOWN LOW- in 'black culture' it has an entirely different definition than being discreet. Way different.

I needed UPSIDE to catch C-eh's laboUr. I was filling with an S. Looking forward to OMK's take on this Shakespearean play. Also... I simply thought "They're ALL Literature". Theme-Groking is not my specialty but Haikus certainly are Harry's

From my Jung-"Sane Man" quote: Can one of you that knows German help with the original German? I think it should be "Rational Man".

WC

P's. We have a dozen propositions (amendments) several of which are "bundled" fe. Oil Drilling and Vape cigarettes

"Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic. A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland."-amazon.com. The book was bittersweet, leavened with humor, and nostalgia. The movie got the basic facts right, but missed the heart of the story. I read the book and saw the film.Although the film, Angela's Ashes, won some awards, it was not universally praised.Rotten Tomatoes says, "With an estimated $25 million budget, the film grossed $13,042,112 in the US, making it a box office bomb. Angela's Ashes currently holds a 52% 'rotten' rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, and the consensus "In spite of its attempts to accurately record Frank McCourt's memoirs, the onscreen adaptation fails to capture any of the drama or humor of his life" (though the audience rating is considerably higher, at 82%."

Good Morning, TTP and friends. I zipped through today's puzzle. I first notice the alliterations with Blossom Buzzer = BEE, even though that is not a Literature Alliteration. I read ANGELA'S ASHES years ago. A very moving story.

CSO to Abejo with ERIES.

I enjoyed the book, GONE GIRL. The movie stayed close to the book.

There are POP-UP STORES that sell Kosher foods where I live.

SwampCat: I sent you an email.

QOD: There was nothing more important I could do than be supportive as a dad. ~ Arne Duncan (né Arne Starkey Duncan; b. Nov. 6, 1964)

Well, like others, this too felt more like a Thursday than a Tuesday puzzle to me. But I loved seeing those literary works fill in as the themes, followed by fun solution. So, many thanks, Joe, and you too, TTP, for a very helpful write-up.

Like Lemonade, didn't know LUPE or WEN which gave me trouble in the southeast corner. And, like Oas, I also made a couple of spelling mistakes I should have caught, like BOSUM and PESKI. I loved watching "Bosom Buddies" when it came on the air, and could never take Tom Hanks seriously as a major actor after that, in spite of the big roles he was given.

Owen, we've been worried about you, and so sorry to hear about your fall. Please be careful and take good care of yourself, and thanks for giving us your poems this morning.

Fermatprime, do mention your headaches to the doctors you'll be seeing--they may be related to some other conditions you have. Hope you get some relief soon.

Hi Y'all! Not on Joe's wavelength so it took me longer than the usual Tuesday. Thanks, for the challenge, Joe. Thanks, TTP for explanations.

Never heard of POP UP STORES. I tried Kiosk STORES.

WEN: my two daughters had them on their scalps so large it made hair combing painful at times. They both had them surgically removed. Husband also had one on his back and face that had to be removed.

I love GIBLETS and had full access to them in my family because no one ELSE did.

Knew YAHWEH, but not the spelling. Tried Jehova first.

Bright sunny day today for voting. I went fairly early because TV radar shows rain on the way. I hope the sun was an omen for a good election, meaning my candidates will all win. As I was leaving the little voting desk (yes, I want a paper ballot), I tripped over the wire leg and two old men jumped in to keep me upright. Glad all three of us stayed upright. Would have taken a troup of EMT's to get us up and it could have had a domino effect. Nobody under 70 in the poll when I was there. "Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down?" Anyway one of the old guys said, "We set that thing crooked on purpose so it gets your heart pumping." We all had a good laugh, so I guess being a klutz has some rewards. I think I did the same thing last year.

Hi everybody. I haven't read the comments yet but I finished the puzzle and enjoyed the theme. Very nice.

I just got back from voting. As my wife said earlier, it was more crowded than usual but no lines. I know I could vote by mail but for me, there is something rewarding about exercising one's constitutional right to vote in person. I saw a couple of retired teachers and a parent of an ex-student. I got my I VOTED sticker and am wearing it proudly.

I especially enjoyed this engaging enterprise. Some nifty entries for a Tuesday. WETS told me the dumpling wasn't DIMSUM and I got WEN entirely from the perps.

It was only about 2 years ago I learned PHO is pronounced like "fuh", which relates to the Gobi desert being pronounced "Guh bee". All of which reminds me how the first European (mostly Jesuit) scholars decided the letter "o" was the best choice for representing the Mandarin Chinese sound "uh" in the Roman alphabet. Yale University invented their own unique Romanization spelling system (which to me makes much more sense to a speaker of Indo-European languages) in which the "uh" vowel sound is spelled with the letter "e." So, for example, "older brother" (pronounced like guh-guh) would have been spelled "gogo" the old way and "gege" the Yale way. So the Yellow River, spelled Huang Ho, is pronounced like "hwahng huh." (Huang rhymes with thong, not twang.) They couldn't use "u" to represent that sound because it was used to represent the "oo" sound, such as in the word "pigu" meaning buttock. My friends would get so amused and laugh at my willingness to eat the chicken pigu, which in my family was often referred to by the euphemism "pope's nose."

But enough pedantry.

Owen, I loved your verses today. About your falling, perhaps you are deficient in vitamin B12, a deficiency of which can weaken your sense of balance. I found taking B12 supplements greatly improved my balance, which in turn improved my confidence about falling. I walk so much more proficiently because of it, too. Give it a try. It took about 3 weeks for me to feel the benefit, but it was significant.

Apropos of nothing, I'm so glad my wife and I mailed in our ballots a couple of weeks ago. I love giblets in gravy, except we eat the (cooked) liver separately. So it's really just the heart and gizzard, cooked and chopped finely, that I put into the gravy; that and the neck meat. The pigu is for Papa!

desper-otto, I got a lovely chuckle from your Mádraig comment. And Jinx, drummer indeed; good one!

Irish Miss, yes, rice flour is made from rice, while bread flour is made from wheat. It is, as you surmised, Asian. I hope you can find rice flour in one of your local (non POPUP) grocery stores.

OwenKL very scary about all those falls. Are you using any walking assistance like a cane or walker? You may want to do so and avoid further fall injuries. There are walkers that are very sturdy and roll easily. Don't get one of those silly ones with the tennis balls on the bottom!

This was almost a DNF for me! I got the theme. But the SE seemed impossible with the unknown crosses of DOWN LOW/LUPE/WEN and the theme reveal ALLITERATURE. But I did a WAG on LUPE and managed to FIR!

My friend leading the hike is Bill Denneen who was about 80 at the time and he could hike as fast or faster than I could.

He ran a small hostel and a small farm. He was not a fan of the GOVERNATOR and you can see in the final photos he named one of his pigs after the GOVERNATOR!

I have SEDONA, ST PAT and BIG SUR photos, too!

I am always intrigued by what people do and don't know. Most people in this country are Christians.

Glad that this puzzle made people aware of YAHWEH which was the god that Jesus worshiped. In the Jewish religion it is considered improper to use the name of God. So there are these words that "refer" to God without being the "name" of God. YAHWEH is such a reference.

Jayce @ 1:13 -- Sorry, but 'Gobi' has no relation to 'pho'. The Gobi is all the way across China from Vietnam, among other distances.

The two "o's" may be pronounced the same in this case, but in Vietnamese, there are -- courtesy of the Portuguese bishop who created the Romanization that the Viets currently use, called "Quoc Ngu" -- THREE different letters "o": plain 'o'; 'o with a hat' (a longer 'o'), and 'o with a whisker' (the ''uh' sound). [Apologies for not using the right letter forms, but the software for the blog won't let me post the Vietnamese letters.]

For some reason, I read (solved by perps) ANGELASASHES as "angel as ashes." I should have recognized "Angela's Ashes."

Did not understand the portmanteau ALLITERATURE, but the perps were solid.

The Hebrew IHVH represent's God's personal name. Jews considered it too holy to speak and said Adonai (Lord, printed with small caps in English translations) instead. Hebrew Scriptures would add the vowel markings of Adonai to the consonants IHVH as a reminder to make the substitution. Christian translators rendered this as the portmanteau Iehovah in Latin, leading to the English Jehovah.

Michael, you are absolutely right about the geographical distance between Vietnam and the Gobi desert. You are also absolutely right that the Vietnamese word phổ uses a different symbol than the Roman letter o without any diacritical marks. I apologize for not being clear enough in recounting how it is my knowledge of the use of the letter o in words such as Gobi that enabled me to make a "connection" in my mind that helped me realize that it makes perfect sense that phổ (or just plain pho) is not pronounced "foe."

I enjoyed the puzzle - some challenges but not too hard. Had to check a couple of things in the NE with red letters. Comprehensive and interesting writeup as always, TTP. I loved the apple popup store story!

In response:31a I don't think the extra e is needed for either kind of hero. To me, heroes just looks so wrong, even if it does follow a "rule".

48a I remember reading my first SS card in 1960. It clearly said "not to be used for identification", just like you said about the Canadian SIN. Seeing what abuse of that rule for all these years has caused, government and some commercial enterprises are just now starting to honor it.

65a Don't know what "Casino" is. Know there's an actor by this name, couldn't recognize him or name anything he was in.

6d I loved my Palm Pilot until it quit working and couldn't be restored. Didn't think the iPod Touch was much if any improvement. Finally broke down and got an iPhone a few months ago. It's less convenient to enter/access information, but the phone is built in, so only one thing to carry around.

18d Pretty video of Sedona area. Too bad they didn't show scenes of Slide Rock, right where Oak Creek goes under the highway through town. Beautiful, cool swimming in the big creek a little way downstream, just out of town. After a weekend there it took me about a month to get the red rock dust out of everything.

26d The International Phonetic Alphabet (What happened to the other e?). Many of the words are common to, or at least understood in, several languages, and are easily distinguished even on scratchy, broken up radio transmissions.

62d We used ATL (attempt to locate) in the Pima County Sheriff's Dept. (Tucson, AZ). "All units, copy Attempt to Locate..." Now it's all on in-car computers.

Owen - so sorry to hear that you've had another fall. I sure hope you can get into a continuing physical therapy program, lose some weight and strengthen those muscles. Great poetry here and on the J, as always.

Jinx @0817 - that's a really old musicians' joke. In the orchestra sometimes we'd substitute "viola player". Mean, and not true, but still funny. I guess as long as I brought this up I should confess that sometimes some unusually nasty and uninformed people would say "tuba player". I never thought that was funny!

CanadianEh @0831 I did smile - and think of you - while I was erasing LOVESLABORSLOST to add the U! (Misjudged and didn't count the letters). BUT - I LOVE giblets - wish they could be in the stuffing AND the gravy (Hi, SwampCat and PK).

Picard @1354 I'm with you - bemused by what people know and don't know. In my mind I separate topics like pop star gossip, TV, movies, pop "music", sports, video games from history, language, science, great music and literature, art, drama, poetry, world religions. I'm often amazed at how much some Jeopardy contestants and some of our puzzlers know from both categories.

DW and I thought we would be camping this week, but the weather didn't cooperate. VA doesn't have early voting, so we sent in our absentee ballots a couple of weeks ago. Actually a pretty nice way to participate in the process.

I heard through the grapevine that absentee ballots are counted only when there are enough of them to affect the outcome of at least one race or issue. I hope that's not true.

DW and I have no House representative, nor do we have a real choice on the ballot. We are gerrymandered into a district where you must be both liberal and black to get elected, and the incumbent, as usual, ran unopposed. Not the Dems fault - it was the state majority Republicans that made this a "giveaway" district, I imagine to concentrate that vote to reduce its impact in districts they really wanted.

Mike, I went digging through my collection of credit cards, frequent flyer, rental car, and other member and loyalty cards, business cards and the like, and I found my original social security card. The social security card says, "For Social Security and Tax Purposes - Not for Identification."

I really need to clean out that collection ! Found a badge reader access card from work and various picture IDs. Some of the department stores haven't been open for years, e.g. Montgomery Wards, and I haven't flown Delta in years. Wonder if I still have any miles on it that could be donated. One of the large chain grocery stores here (Dominicks) is no longer in business, and the other (Jewel Osco) no longer has a loyalty program that requires showing a card. Don't think I can use my Texaco or Gulf gas cards anymore, but have two Chevron cards that I think replaced them, and I don't know that I've ever used them.

Ta ~ DA!Had a little trouble ('tho, thankfully, not too much) with the "Shakespeare comedy." I mean, why is Mr. Deeney sticking with the ol'-timey Brit spelling of LOVE'S LABORS' LOST?Nice to see you on the modern side too, CanadianEh!And Irish Miss!

What a punny puzzle to tee-up our Tuesday. Thanks Joe. And thank to TTP for the most excellent review (I loved the apple POP-UP STORE sign!)

WOs: I all AL-TERAToRy until I remembered territory has two Rs; LUPE got me on the right path.ESPs: WEN, TRENTE, YAHWEH's spelling.WAGs galore: ANGELAS ASHES; GONE GIRL; LOVES LABOURS LOST; I've heard of these but never read any of 'em.Fav: GOVERNATOR - I've not seen that in an xword before.

SwampCat, I just got in the habit of throwing my cards in a box in a drawer. I have intended to clean out that drawer, but never get it done. My brother said that when he couldn't get things done, it was because he didn't get a tuit. Specifically a round one.

FLN - Misty: Don't feel too-terrestrial, not many people know of The JudyBats from Knoxville, KY.

In grad-school, I stumbled upon them at a record-store [who remembers those? :-)] and I thought their name, The JudyBats, was funny [think Punch and Judy] and the the record's title, Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow [4:05], absolutely hilarious. I took a chance [I had money pre-kids (I know what you're thinking: "in Grad School?," but, remember, DOD was paying for that and giving me GS-9 $$ ta'boot)] and loved it!

So much, in fact, I went back and got their 1st album Native Son. When their other two albums dropped, I got those too [but they weren't as good].

TTP - I always seem to be at a loss for round-tuits :-)Many bars in SPI give out "wooden-nickles" [just wooden-disks slightly bigger than a quarter] with their logos on them as tokens for free-beer (to get you come back). I remember on bar printed "tuit" on the back of theirs: Flip it over to give someone "a round-tuit" when they're procrastinating :-)

Up watching election returns, but they're still just doing minimal reporting on California. And with the normal slow counting, it may be days before we know about some of the down ballot races. Maybe I should I just go to bed!

TTP @ 9:21 ... I think that's the new American norm, to have a drawer somewhere, like the kitchen, that is filled with all the spare batteries, rubber bands, business cards -- all that stuff we "Might Need Someday."

I knew some friends who took that up one whole notch, and had an official "Awful Room", where the vacuum cleaner, the dusting rags, the unfolded laundry, the exercise machine -- well, you can fill in the rest of the blanks. This is one of the most useful concepts of the last 50 years, as you just open the door, toss whatever in, and, voila! your social standing remains unimpugned.

Dash T, those round tuits must have been a thing. My brother would show his every once in a while. I think my dad got it for him.

Michael, we have a room in the basement that has all of the "stuff" that used to be in the attic. Like keepsakes, Christmas decorations, and more. Had to move it all somewhere when I added another 10" of fiberglass insulation.